In Part One I talked about
Cambridge schools from 1799 to 1927. I start this part
with the Central School Act of 1927. I was going to move
on to the suspicious fire that destroyed the Cambridge
School in 1947, but once again I got sidetracked.

Instead I go back to the riotous
1873 debate about merging the East and West Districts
into a single school district. I touched on this in Part
One, but after reading Dave Thorntons humorous details
of that year I just had to include more.

I wrap up this part of my research
with material about the 30-plus one-room schoolhouses in
the 3 local towns.

1927 to 1937  Central School Act

In 1927 the NYS Legislature passed
the Central School Act, designed to form central rural
school districts to provide rural children the same
education as urban children. The law called for five men
to be elected to a Board of Education to remove the
operation of the schools from the political settings of
the town government.

The act encouraged adoption by
increasing state aid to cover one-fourth of building
costs and one-half of transportation costs. The NYS
Department of Education estimated the 276 schools in
Washington County could be consolidated into 11
districts.

Yet by 1937, only Hartford had
joined the program. Hartford consolidated 14 small
school districts in 1929 and eight years later had to
build another new school. Little wonder that Cambridge
waited until February 1944 to merge surrounding rural
districts with the Union School to form Cambridge
Central School District No.10.

In the meantime village schools,
like the Cambridge Union School, tried to attract rural
high school students since state aid for a district
resident was $55 and $136 for a non-resident. In 1937
there were 466 students at the Union School, and 45% of
the 150 high school students were non-residents.

1873 - A Village (Still) Divided

According to the Village Charter,
Cambridge was incorporated on April 16, 1866. But if you
look closer, youd still see an East District and a West
District drawn along the same lines as their
predecessors, North White Creek and Cambridge Corners,
respectively.

This division was deeply evident in
1873 as Cambridge debated forming a single school
district. When the Cambridge School Bill was drafted and
sent to the NYS Assembly in February 1873, two large
delegations from Cambridge went to Albany to be heard
one group for the bill, the other against it.

By April the Bill had passed the
Assembly and moved to the NYS Senate. Once again, two
large delegations descended upon the state capital. When
the Bill passed the Senate in May, it stipulated that a
majority of the voters in Cambridge must approve the
location of the building and the amount of expenditures.

In late May the newly elected
Governor John Adams Dix signed the Cambridge School Bill
after meeting with (you guessed it) two large
delegations from the village. The final bill required a
general village election, and this is where the local
fun begins.

East End vs. West End  Once Again

On June 18, 1873 five men were
elected to the first Board of Education. A general
election was held and the Cambridge School Bill was
defeated 195-128. But the West End (District No 1) and
the East End (District No 10) werent done there.

In July, they considered an
alternative of building a Union Free School under the
State Education Law of 1853. They met at the engine
house, neutral ground between the East and the West. The
East Enders, perhaps remembering how they had been
outnumbered in the 1799 vote that decided the location
of the Washington Academy, showed up in force. The West
Enders, lacking a quorum, had to scurry around the
neighborhood to locate more voters to form their quorum.

A vote on the resolution to build
the Union Free School halfway between Washington Street
and Blairs Brook (Owl Kill) was tabled until the next
meeting. Two weeks later the West Enders came prepared,
showing up with a petition signed by two-thirds of its
voters. Unfortunately, the petition didnt support
joining with the East to form a single school district,
but rather joining the West End and Coila!

Finally a vote on the original
resolution was held. It was soundly approved by the East
End 34-7 and soundly defeated by the West End 98-8.
After the meeting adjourned, the West Enders werent
done. They gathered at Ackley Hall, argued and
complained about the East Enders, and finally voted
130-26 to go ahead without the East End.

The West End leased the old
Washington Academy, making it the Union Free School of
the West District. The East Enders retaliated by
purchasing the J. P. Putnam estate, converting it into
the Putnam Institute, and making it the Union Free
School of the East District.

It would take 20 more years until
the East and the West school districts merged, and in
1891 the Cambridge Union School was opened.

One-room Schoolhouses

In 1845 the Town of Cambridge had
14 schoolhouses. There were 514 children between the
ages of 5 and 16 residing in the district, yet these
schools must have used new math because they reported
615 students when applying for State Aid! Each school
averaged 24 actual students. All teachers in the
district received a total of $945 on top of their board.

The Town of Jackson had 9
schoolhouses. There were 411 children in the district,
yet they reported 548 as being taught. Each school
averaged 23 actual students. All teachers in the
district received a total of $835 on top of their board.

The Town of White Creek had 14
schoolhouses. There were 613 children in the district,
yet they reported 815 as being taught. Each school
averaged 30 actual students. All teachers in the
district received a total of $1005 on top of their
board.

State Aid paid for about 40% of the
districts education expense. Many of the small
districts are in the habit of keeping their schools
open but for a single term of four months, or just long
enough to secure the public money. A few schools were
vacant in the winter, presumably due to cold weather,
and also in the summer, presumably due to farming.

In 1844, many town superintendents
were notified of inconsistencies in counting monthly
attendance. After continual hounding to correct and
return the reports, the Town of Cambridge finally
returned its report uncorrected!

Teacher Classification

Teachers were classified into 1st,
2nd, and 3rd class, with 1st
class representing the best. By 1845 the number in the 1st
class had fallen to 45%, and the number in the 3rd
class had grown to 10%. Weaker districts were employing
cheap teachers so as to not exceed its share of public
funds.

An 1845 report concludes Ought not
these facts to arouse the dormant energies of the
public, and lead them to a speedy correction of these
crying evils. Evidently not, as an 1867 report states
that certification had worsened. In that year 15% of the
teacher applicants were rejected, only 12% received 1st
class certificates, and 40% of the applicants were only
suitable for 3rd class certification.

The 1867 report declares, only
good teachers can make good schools, stating that the
Rate Bill of 1814 induces the employment of inefficient
teachers. The report believed a general system of
taxation of all district residents would result in
better teachers and more consistent textbooks.

Next Steps

Ive only scratched the surface. I
still havent gotten to the to 1947 suspicious fire
that destroyed the Cambridge School shortly after a
hotly contested vote to create a new centralized school.
Also, I havent touched the 55 years of the current
CCSs existence.

Im going to continue my research.
Perhaps later this year or early next Ill have
assembled enough material for the next installment. Last
week I read that when one rural schoolhouse voted not to
join the central district, CCS hired its only teacher,
which caused the schoolhouse to close. Good ole
Cambridge. Stories like that make me want to keep on
digging.

Acknowledgements

Isaac Newton once stated, If I
have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of
giants. Likewise, ones research of Cambridges past
can only be accomplished by relying on the work of the
giant historians who came before. While many collected
and reported facts about Cambridges past, it was Dave
Thornton who assembled personal views of our community
and its people. Daves portraits of our past help me see
the past centuries as if I am there. Thanks, Dave.

Corrections

In Part One I stated the Cambridge
Washington Academy graduated two governors, one
senator, and dozens of judges. Governor Hiland Hall (VT)
and Governor George N Briggs (MA) attended the academy
but I have yet to verify they graduated from the
academy.

--- SIDEBAR MATERIAL FOLLOWS ---

Location of Schoolhouses - 1866

The Washington County Historical
Society has an 1866 atlas of all towns. The accompanying
tables show the schoolhouses that I was able to locate
on the maps for Cambridge, Jackson, and White Creek

Town of Cambridge
- 1866

District

Location

1

School Street -
between South Union and Academy Street

2

Coila (NY372) -
just west of Virtue's Trailers

3

Greenwich Road
(NY372) Schoolhouse Hill

4

Greenwich Road
(NY372) and North Cambridge Road (CR60)

5

South Cambridge
CR74 and CR59A

6

7

Brownell Road -
Vly Summit

8

Stump Church Road
and North Cambridge Road (CR60)

9

10

Kenyon Road and
Gillis Road

11

12

Center Cambridge
Road (CR59) and English Road

13

South Cambridge

14

King Road and
Belle Road

15

16

King Road and
Green Road

Town of White
Creek - 1866

District

Location

1

2

3

Turnpike Road -
Grandma Moses Schoolhouse

4

5

White Creek Road
(CR68) and Lincoln Hill Road

6

Shaker Hollow
Road

7

Center Road - Rod
& Gun Club

8

Chestnut Hill
Road and McKie Hollow Road

9

Ash Grove Road
and Chestnut Hill Road

10

North Park Street

11

Ash Grove Road
and Black Hole Hollow Road

12

13

14

Turnpike Road and
Duell Hollow Road (Gospel Lighthouse Church)

??

Meeting House
Road

??

White Creek Road
(CR68) and North Hoosick Road

Town of Jackson -
1866

District

Location

1

2

Dunbar Road and
Rouse Road

3

4

5

Keys Road

6

NY22 north of
Fish Hatchery Road (current Town Hall)

7

NY313 and Plains
Road

8

NY313 just south
of Eagleville Road

9

Lake
Lauderdale
(Schoolhouse Pond)

??

Dunbar Road

??

Sutherland Road
and Dobbin Road

Jackson District No 9 - Lauderdale

Go north from Cambridge on Route 22
to the Burger Den restaurant. Sit at the table by the
front window and look eastward across Schoolhouse Pond.
You can just make out the one-room schoolhouse that
served Jacksons district 9 for almost 100 years
starting in 1847.

I interviewed Charlie Ackley, the
top student in the Eighth Grade Class of 1932 (oh wait,
he was the only student). He moved to the Cambridge High
School for grades 9-12 and graduated in 1936 along with
my mother.

Rices Seed Box Houses

After it closed, the Washington
Academy building was used by the Rice Seed Company and
wooden crates were made there. During the Great
Depression, the boards from these crates were used to
build houses. Two Seed Box houses still exist in
Cambridge today. One is on the East side of Grove Street
just North of Avenue A. The other is the yellow house on
the West side of North Union Street just South of Spring
Street.

Hitchcock Farm

My great grandfather, William L
Hitchcock, owned the pictured farmhouse. It was situated
where the bandstand is today just north of the CCS
Science Wing. The Cambridge Central School District
bought the farm from the Hitchcocks in 1946, demolished
the farmhouse, and in 1950 opened the new school.